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Post by tomfromqueens on May 31, 2021 20:27:09 GMT -6
I know there’s been a lot of anti-Maury sentiment lately, largely because of the apparent consensus that he wandered too far off the reservation in trying to establish links that may suggest a bigger picture but don’t help solve the SOS case per se, as well as the personality flaws that likely hindered the effectiveness of his efforts, but would there be this whole community of researchers here today still trying to get to the truth, if not for the groundwork he laid? Without it, I’m not sure that the official version of the case would have ever been challenged elsewhere.
Maury may not have collected irrefutable evidence for every crime scene and every co-conspirator, but would the outcome be any different if he had? The opposing forces of NYPD brass, media, etc have always been the greatest obstacle. And if La Cosa Nostra was really behind it all as you’ve suggested, with the 22 Disciples being little more than a bunch of convenient go-between dirtbags willing to snuff out lives for the right price, then forget it, it’s never getting fully solved.
When I watched the 2-hour 40th anniversary special on ID in 2017 and saw how police-centric the presentation was, my hopefulness of a real resolution of the case reached an all-time low. Why Zeman gave them face time yet again in the new Netflix series is beyond me. When has Borelli ever even tried to refute a specific piece of evidence suggesting accomplices, as opposed to just pissing all over Terry’s investigation wholesale? It’s like when Joe Pesci falls asleep and misses the prosecutor’s entire questioning of a witness - when the judge wakes him up, all he can come up with is “everything that guy just said is bullshit.” That’s Joe Borelli’s M.O. I don’t dispute the sincere desire and efforts of the Omega team to solve the case, especially in those frantic months of 1977, but it’s been strictly a face-saving undertaking ever since. I did get the sense that some of the lead detectives may have their doubts, because just participating in the conversation objectively comes across much differently than the belligerent attitudes of Borelli and Coffey. And Coffey (albeit now deceased), should have known better, what with his illustrious career battling the New York mob. But it’s already been posited that a number of Omega detectives had their suspicions of accomplices, so nothing new there.
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Post by marionumber1 on May 31, 2021 22:10:03 GMT -6
I think the main issue is that it's very difficult to verify what Maury says or investigate any of his information further. We basically just have his word to go on for nearly everything in the book, and while various documentaries offer enough corroboration that I can't imagine all or even most of it being fake, there definitely is an opportunity for certain facts to be inaccurate or presented in a misleading context. This gets worse for the parts of the book that rely on anonymous informants: particularly the California investigation, but also at some other points. One instance of this which really stood out for me and broke the narrative flow was when very near the beginning of the book, before Maury had even really begun the conspiracy argument, he suddenly cited nameless "sources" to detail Berkowitz's actions leading up to his arrest (p.207-211 of the 1999 edition of TUE). And of course, Maury's known personality flaws with respect to the case only make it harder to take his writings at face value, as his credibility is all that exists to support them.
What would be ideal is obtaining the law enforcement records themselves if possible, which myself and some others have been attempting. Then we could really begin to reconstruct the investigation for ourselves and get a better sense of how much of Maury's book checks out. Plus, these files are likely to include key background information on all of the victims from the police's initial investigations, which might explain why some of the victims (especially Donna Lauria and Christine Freund) were targeted. Time will tell if we can get the LE agencies to divulge them.
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Post by Omega on Jun 1, 2021 6:26:08 GMT -6
Some great posts and observations guys, posted in this thread on Maury Terry!
Taking a page out of the movie "It's A Wonderful Life" I often wonder how the Son of Sam story would have evolved if Maury did NOT write "The Ultimate Evil" (nor wrote any of the related articles pre-book that was the foundation of "TUE")
Maury was from Yonkers and, of course, Berkowitz lived and was arrested in Yonkers. Even though Maury's main career, at the time, was working for IBM, he had a side career as a freelance journalist, before and after the Berkowitz arrest. But, what if Berkowitz was from Queens or Long Island or New Jersey? Would Maury still have pursued the story and also have access to pertinent information (i.e police reports, etc) to be able to write the articles and eventually the book? The answer is probably "no" because what got him pointed in the direction of "The Ultimate Evil" was being able to investigate and write articles for the Gannett-Westchester news chain in the 1979 - 1981 time frame. Gannett-Westchester would probably not have the same motivation or interest to print a story if Berkowitz wasn't from Westchester. I don't know if even Maury would have had the same passion to pursue the story, if it happened that Berkowitz and company lived in a completely different area.
Like I mentioned, if one goes back and reads Maury's newspaper articles on the Son of Sam connections in the 1979 - 1981 time frame, you can see the foundation of "The Ultimate Evil". The articles mainly stick with a localized angle, meaning New York only. The book release in 1987 is where the story expands to a nationwide conspiracy and this probably had a lot to due with "selling" the book to publishers to generate a wider audience interest beyond New York. Some, may say that expansion may have backfired, story got too confusing. But, that was probably going to be the only way to get the story/book published.
Also, it didn't look like anyone else, outside of Maury, was exploring, writing and presenting this "Berkowitz didn't act alone" theory in the late 1970s - 1980s, on a professional level (i.e. journalists, law enforcement, etc.). Maury cultivated and kept that story alive.
Maury and "The Ultimate Evil", over time, may have actually hindered law enforcement from releasing any further details and behind the scenes reporting, post-Berkowitz arrest. When Maury was writing his articles, pre-book, and when Lawrence Klausner wrote his book on the Son of Sam in 1981, it seemed access to law enforcement info was more available and flowing. Over time, things got more shut down. Maury's battles and challenges with law enforcement probably had a lot to do with that.
The "Son of Sam" story, involving others, has always been a difficult story to keep alive, even in recent times. It doesn't have the overall appeal and interest of Manson or Zodiac. Just a few short years ago (in 2017) around the 40th anniversary of Berkowitz's arrest you could see how the SOS story was dying from lack of interest. The Netflix series and book re-release has breathed new life into the story and interest. The internet era may have gotten professional and amateur sleuths and researchers to look at the Son of Sam case in more detail, as far as the non-lone gunman theory was concerned, even if Maury had never gotten involved and wrote his book.
But, whether we like to admit it or not. Whether we like to agree to disagree with and critique some of the theories presented. We have one man to thank for bringing this all together, here in 2021.
Thank you Maury
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Post by Admin Horan on Jun 1, 2021 9:46:28 GMT -6
It's not that Maury "wandered off the reservation." It's just that his book is mostly "Anonymous Source A vaguely hinted that Anonymous Suspect B was in some kind of cult." It's basically one big urban legend. Is there any truth to it? We don't know, because we don't know who A is, who B is, or that this "cult" ever actually existed.
He COULD have stuck to "Son of Sam was actually a string of hits carried out by a mafia-affiliated gang of dope pushers, human traffickers, and Hollyweird scumbags." We have found a ton of evidence to corroborate THAT. And Maury could have have, too. But he didn't. He tried to make a career out of screaming, "Satanism!" But, the ONLY murder in the whole book that looks remotely "cult sacrifice" in nature is Arlis Perry. And the only link between Arlis Perry, the prime suspect, and a "cult" is a weird CHRISTIAN movement. Not a Satanic one. And not "The Process Church." It's like blaming the Catholicism for the mafia. Yeah, most mafia birds are "catholic." Yeah, the mafia has infiltrated the Vatican bank, etc. But the catholicism is not the reason for the mafia.
He's like Christopher Columbus. He was mostly wrong, to the point of self-delusion, and he even flat out lied about certain key points in his story, but in the end, we have a Starbucks on every street corner in the world.
And there's something else. In LaBianca (if "not" Tate) we have a blatant mafia motive. So, the police themselves start pushing a "madman" theory to the press. As that starts to fall apart under investigative reporting, the mafia-shielding propaganda shifts to "weird cult." Pushed by the DA himself. In DeFeo, we not only have a blatant mafia hit, but the sole "survivor"/prime suspect TELLS police, "It was me and a mafia torpedo." Even gave them the guy's name (I'm too lazy to look it up.) So, the cops run to the TV cameras and scream, "Ronnie is a lunatic who hears voices. They might be demons. But, this sure had nothing to do with the mafia!" This is followed by the "Amityville Horror" nonsense. Then, when a bunch of "random" shootings start looking like mafia hits, the police suddenly scream, "Lone psycho! Probably hears voices! They might be demons! And look, we caught this guy who hears voices of demons telling him to kill! Case closed!" When that starts falling apart under investigative reporting, along comes an amateur investigator who runs around the TV cameras screaming, "Cult! Cult! Cult!"
It's funny. If you throw ZODIAC, Helter Skelter, and The Ultimate Evil in the garbage where they belong, and just start over, following the actual evidence in each case, you not only crack these "cases," but you even uncover concrete links between them. That have nothing to do with any "Satanic cult," but EVERYTHING to do with good old fashioned organized criminals with an unhealthy sprinkle of government propaganda shills among them.
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